Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Royal Headache: Interview!

Royal Headache have new material in the works and an upcoming tour of Europe later in the year to follow up their universally loved debut in 2011, I caught up with Guitarist Law to find out a bit more about them...

Law! Thanks for chatting to GG! It’s quite a grey dreary day here in the UK – what’s it like in Australia right now?

It's currently summer but here in Sydney the weather has been really wet and mild with some rare moments of sun. Kind of feels like we've been cheated of a Summer.

You’re planning to tour Europe later in the year do you know the EU at all? Anywhere you’re particularly looking forward to visiting?

I once went over as a teenager with my parents just after I left high school and Shortty (our drummer) toured there about 6-7 years ago with his old band Headless Horsemen but the other two guys have yet experience the EU. We have a friend and our record label in France so we're looking forward to hanging out with those guys. Really unsure what to expect- just looking forward to hitting the road and seeing what comes.

Do you enjoy being on the road? Any particularly memorable moments from previous tours?

I personally love being on the road and traveling - it really is one of the best things about being in a band. We had some really memorable experiences in the USA last year. The one that comes to mind the most is the Baltimore party we had during the day with all the locals on the street- we bought 50 crabs and whole bunch of 40oz malt liquors and spent the afternoon sitting on a porch mingling with all the locals and then a game of street football broke out with all the local kids. Definitely the highlight of the tour.

‘Royal Headache’ made it on many end of year lists for 2011, did you expect it to receive such a positive response?

The amount of positive things said about the LP was fairly overwhelming. There was a moment when the LP looked like it could of been stalled for another 4-5 months so personally I was just glad that LP was released and done with.

Who took the photograph on the cover of the album it's a great sleeve!

Our friend Steve Patrick from Useless Children took it before one of our Camp A Low Hum sets. He actually took that photo on an iphone!

What are some of your favourite record covers?

Personally I like a lot of the record covers from 90's emo/hardcore bands like Indian Summer, Evergreen, Saetia etc.

What do you want to achieve playing music in Royal Headache?

To really just enjoy it as much as possible and to not take it too seriously.

When did you have that 'I can do that' moment and start playing music?

My brother always wanted to learn guitar so I just tagged along with him - we started our first band when were 14/15 - ever since then I've always played music - haha that's fairly boring.

What can you tell us about any new material on the way and when we can get a hold of it?!

We're just in the process writing our 2nd LP. We're almost there. Hopefully it'll be released by the end of this year.

I can pick out a love for Power Pop in Royal Headache’s stuff, what else do you turn to for ideas when writing songs? Feel free to mention anything, doesn’t have to pertain to bands….

At the moment there's lots of influences going through our music but honestly at this stage we're much more relaxed on how we write- just let happen naturally and not worry too much on sounding like something.

I read that you hadn’t done a lot of recording before ‘Royal Headache’ was made, what did you take away from the recording process for this album? Is there anything you’d do differently for new material?

You could probably write a book on the whole process of how long it took us to record the LP. It was honestly a nightmare. We really do need to talk about it the next time we decide to lay tracks down as there's no way I'm going through that process again.

Do you prefer playing or recording?

Playing live is honestly such an addictive feeling. Nothing really compares to it.

It’s a little while back now but, I’d love to know how gonerfest was, I’ve never been!

It was basically 3 days and 3 nights of constant drinking, bands and southern fried food. You NEED to go.

What’s the most memorable show you’ve ever attended?

Seeing the Stockholm Syndrome as a 16 year old was fairly life changing. King Khan and The Shrines was maybe the most exciting show I've ever seen.

Can you tell us a little bit about ‘Psychotic Episode’ it’s PERMANENTLY stuck in my head (meant in the best possible way)!

You'd have to ask Shogun this one!

What records do you have playing at home at the moment?

Lots of Oddisee and DTMD.

Any other projects you guys have going on at the moment we can keep an eye out for?

A fair few bands that we're involved with - Camperdown and Out, Bed Wettin Bad Boys, The Sweats and N-Police.

"I'm full of dust and guitars" - Syd Barrett, if you were sliced in half what would be inside?